The Stand Comedy Club Podcast · The Stand

Darren Connell

·1 hr 32 min·5 clips

Darren says his uncle Jerry had mental health problems and “my granddad died on my birthday” when he was 10.

Darren Cunnell comes in hot, and the room is already halfway to a joke before the microphones properly settle. The first topic is a black coffee from the Stand, with blackcurrant in it, then two raw eggs enter the picture, apparently for gains. It is all treated like normal behaviour, which is part of the joke. The conversation quickly reaches back to a previous green room moment involving a protein milkshake. That milkshake had 50 grams of protein in it. It was strawberry-flavoured. It also tasted strange. Darren drank it anyway because he did not want to waste the money. It apparently cost about 480, and the rest of the day went sideways after that. The chat leans on that memory because it is such a perfect mix of comedy circuit stupidity and real bodily consequence. From there, Darren shifts into a more serious stretch about addiction and mental health. His line is simple: go to the doctor. He pushes the GP first, then proper professionals, then services like Alcoholics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, or Overeaters Anonymous where relevant. He is clear that he is not trying to sound like a medical authority. That advice should come from people who actually know what they are doing. That part of the conversation also has a sharper edge. He takes aim at online sobriety posturing, especially when people bolt offensive comments onto recovery speeches for no clear reason. The Bible briefly shows up as a comic interruption. So does James English's podcast, where quoting scripture becomes part of the joke. The chat keeps sliding sideways rather than staying in one lane. Veganism comes up, but only as something Darren does not want to be treated as an expert on. He talks about having eating disorders and about being vegetarian or near-vegan for the wrong reasons, which gives the exchange a more honest underside. The tone stays loose even when the subject turns serious. He keeps puncturing any attempt to make him sound like a guru. Instead, he sounds like someone who has been through enough to know where the limits are. The episode also works because of the running bits around drinking, food, and the sheer ridiculousness of trying to be healthy in a comedy green room. A cult joke arrives. A Puma jumper gets mentioned. The banter feels like it could keep going forever if nobody checked the clock. Near the end, the chat circles back to the earlier egg talk and to the idea of who would beat whom up if they were an egg. Nick Helm gets pulled into the orbit by comparison, which is exactly the kind of sideways callback this conversation likes. Darren lands on the polite side of the exchange, but only just. The final stretch keeps the tone friendly, messy, and a bit gloriously pointless. It feels like a proper hangout: half interview, half daft recovery mission, half comic digression, which is more than enough if you like hearing comics amuse each other in real time.

As heard by us

A loose green room chat that keeps finding jokes in drink disasters and blunt advice.

Darren Cunnell spends the green room in easy, good-natured mode, drifting through bad drink choices, gym nonsense, and backstage stories that improve the longer he sits with them.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for a green-room chat with Darren Cunnell that starts with black coffee, raw eggs, and blackcurrant, then veers into milkshake chaos.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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